EU Commission presents proposal for post-COVID-19 Recovery Plan, includes initiative on sustainable corporate governance in 2021
On 27 May 2020, the EU Commission presented its proposal for a post-pandemic recovery plan 'Next Generation EU' to help the bloc recover from the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis. The EU’s updated seven-year €1 trillion budget proposal and €750 billion recovery plan's aim is to "guide and build a more sustainable, resilient and fairer Europe".
The proposal also includes a new initiative in 2021 on sustainable corporate governance, to "ensure environmental and social interests are fully embedded into business strategies". Civil society says this must include robust due diligence obligations for EU companies to respect human rights and the environment. It follows an announcement by EU Justice Commissioner Reynders last month committing to introducing rules for mandatory corporate environmental and human rights due diligence.
More information is available below, including reactions from civil society.